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[thatJohann]

Grand Theft Auto VI is arguably the most hyped game in history. The trailers alone have shattered records, every small leak or rumor dominates gaming discussion, and the expectations for what Rockstar is building feel astronomical.

But that's the thing, when the bar is set so high, can any studio, even Rockstar, realistically meet it? Or are we entering into a situation where the game could be brilliant and still feel like a letdown just because the hype is literally impossible to live up to?

We've seen this before with other massively hyped releases:

• Cyberpunk 2077 – marketed as a generational leap but stumbled at launch with bugs and missing features.
• No Man's Sky – promised the universe, but expectations collapsed until years of updates salvaged it.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – one of the rare cases that lived up to (and maybe exceeded) hype at launch.
• Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom – both carried the "most anticipated game ever" tag and largely delivered.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 – Rockstar's own previous example of sky-high expectations that, depending on who you ask, it either fully lived up to or was "too slow" for some players.

Do you think Rockstar will actually deliver with GTA VI, living up to the hype and pressure of being the most anticipated game ever made? Or is the level of expectation now so unrealistic that it's impossible for the final product to truly satisfy everyone?

 

[SJRB]

 

[AJUMP23]

The hype is too much to fulfill.

 

[PauloRoberto]

No. No game lives up to the 'second week hype'. After some weeks however, we can really start to measure up pros and cons of a game to have a opinion of what is good, what is bad and what's maybe why not could be improved without losing a game essence. (Personal example: i believe hollow knight could and should have at least 3 or 4 more stag stations without losing anything about it's essence)

 

[Gonzito]

Yes

 

[Baemono]

Yes

 

[bighugeguns]

It'll break records again, gaming needs a hero.

 

[pudel]

R* always delivered. I dont see much why this should be any different now.

 

[Punished Miku]

It'll be interesting to watch. People are pinning the fate of the entire industry on this game for some reason, so that's a bit hilarious to watch. We're in a totally different world now. Can people even handle satire? A lot of the world now is split politically on extremely deep divisive lines, so one person's jokes are another persons mind virus.

I expect it'll be similar to the last 2. I mean, it's part 6. I don't know if anyone is even actually expecting anything but insane graphics, and that is still up in the air in my opinion. Does anyone think it's going to redefine gameplay? No. Is the writing going to be so amazing it's from another planet? Probably not. It'll have the biggest budget of any game ever, but with how long they've been working on the damn thing, some of the production values would have to be somewhat inconsistent. GTA V came out on PS3. Is every single aspect of the game going to be PS6+ level when they've been working on the thing for a decade? I don't really see how, but maybe they just scraped and redid most of it for all I know.

 

[Fahdis]

NO
Yes

 

[Bondo]

I think it will. For me anyway, they always meet my expectations.
The attention to detail and time spent creating these games is always a step ahead- or 10.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Yes. Next question!

 

[thatJohann]

I just rewatched the last trailer and it's just amazing what they're building.

And I have no doubt it will the be biggest and fastest selling piece of consumer entertainment of ALL TIME.

 

[Liopleurodon]

I voted for:

Yes — Rockstar will blow past expectations.

The reason is simple, we people don't actually know what we expect, and maybe even more than that, we overestimate how much it really takes to make us happy, and content.

 

[Sybrix]

Rockstar are the masters of their craft, the track record is second to none.

All prior games to a GTA release have been test bed of features, look at RDR2, all those features will be refined and improved ten-fold in GTAVI.

GTAVI is clearly going for a more realistic tone, more so than in GTA V, the art style, the trailers so far and what RDR2 brought is evident of that.

It depends what your hype levels are, if you're expecting a game world where every building is enterable, you're going to be dissapointed.

For me, i know the game will meet the hype, i'm basing this of what RDR2 delivered.

 

[Kilau]

Everything is disappointing shit to my old bitter ass.

 

[calico]

The consensus will be that it is incredible.

I consider 4 & 5 to be 'impressive' rather than particularly good, and I have similar expectations for 6.

 

[existensmaximum]

RDR2 certainly didn't deliver for me and they're becoming less daring and politically incorrect for every game so.. We'll see. I think GTA 5 was an amazing game though so I really hope they'll deliver something special.

 

[ReBurn]

I think they'll do ok

 

[jzbadblood]

Even their table tennis game was awesome. Until they put out a bad game I'll stay hyped for the Rockstar logo.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

There's no way GTAVI releases like Cyberpunk or No Man's Sky...or with the performance that Skyrim had back in the day.

Also RDR2 doesn't even deserve to be on that list. The game released as a fully developed game and had nowhere near the same "issues" as the first 3 games from your list had. It's not even an issue but more like a matter of preference. Something Rockstar wanted to do by design.

About deliver based on hype...i'm just expecting a game that's a bit above RDR2 in terms of graphical fidelity. I'm more curious about the mission design tbh.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

If anything it feels like there isn't enough hype. Seeing how hype things got when IV & V Both got back then. I'm sure it'll hit critical mass closer to release.

 

[R6Rider]

I think they can do it.

Game looks fantastic so far and we've barely seen anything yet.

 

[GudOlRub]

While I'm super hyped, I'll always be on the "wait for gameplay" camp before I make up my mind about it.
But if half the features that were mentioned in the leaks make it to the final version and work well then I'm confident it'll be the game of the generation.

 

[Judge Magister]

I'm excited because Vice City. I was not a fan of V already.

 

[bad guy]

Personally I don't have much expectation because I dispise the direction GTA5 went. But I'm sure it will cater to the masses extraordinarily.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

I have a feeling that it will exceed expectations in many areas. I also imagine it will get the same type of criticism that their past few games have had in the way it controls when it comes to combat and player movement from GTA IV to RDR2. All of them are excellent games, but the controls on console at 30fps are sluggish and make the games annoying to play.

Unless they have changed the way missions are structured or can be approached, I also hope it faces criticism there too.

All in all I'm looking forward to GTAVI, but I would love to see some gameplay and for Rockstar to talk about what they've done differently to past releases. I'm sure these will surface around March time though.

 

[nemiroff]

I guess we'll see

 

[Verchod]

Well it's a fairly shallow and basic game in terms of gameplay. It's the scope of the environment which makes GTA. I surely it'll be exactly what people want, plus a few surprises.
It's not a game that's breaking new ground in any way, it'll just be great fun with new graphics.
Hype easily met.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I don't think it will be much of an upgrade from 5. Better animations and higher res textures. Gameplay itself will remain unchanged, I suspect.
My only hype is it might have a built in VR mode fully realized with few issues.

 

[DragonNCM]

I expect quality of RDR2 maybe even more !

 

[Aesius]

It will essentially be a more detailed/interactive version of RDR2, but scaled across a modern state with large metropolitan cities and towns. Deeper greet/antagonize interactions with NPCs (but still no real dialogue trees), more random events and mini missions, more building interiors, etc.

Take GTA V, apply everything Rockstar learned and created for RDR2, and scale it up in size, depth, and complexity.

 

[Negotiator101]

It will essentially be a more detailed/interactive version of RDR2, but scaled across a modern state with large metropolitan cities and towns. Deeper greet/antagonize interactions with NPCs (but still no real dialogue trees), more random events and mini missions, more building interiors, etc.

Take GTA V, apply everything Rockstar learned and created for RDR2, and scale it up in size, depth, and complexity.

Is that all?

 

[Aesius]

Is that all?

Yes. I am Rockstar. Sorry to disappoint.

 

[Sethbacca]

It doesn't matter how good it is, it cannot possibly live up to the hype of being the next GTA game. The fan expectations are higher than anybody could possibly deliver at this point.

 

[KyoZz]

It's R*. Not only do they deliver, but they exceed expectations. At least mine, and I was very hesitant when GTA IV or RDR II came out for example, yet they managed to outdo themselves every time (minus GTA V, which at this time is still the only R* game I haven't finished).

I'm confident for GTA VI for it looks like the biggest technical jump ever for the studio, and if they can still nail the story, it's gonna be a masterpiece. Only downside for me is I have to wait for the PC release.

 

[Sleepwalker]

They won't, but it will still sell a metric fuckton.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Either choice 1 or at the very least choice 2. It's going to easily be the best GTA of all times and one of the best games of all times with whats shown and expected so far. With only Elder Scrolls VI, Warcraft 4, Witcher 4, and Fallout 5 rivaling it or surpassing it.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

I'm just waiting for the inevitable 20min long compilation on Youtube where it examples all the things you could do in GTA 4 & 5 that you can't in 6.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

I predict it will disappoint. There's no way it can live up to the crazy hype, but there will be tons of shills who will claim R* can do no wrong.

 

[GymWolf]

It will essentially be a more detailed/interactive version of RDR2, but scaled across a modern state with large metropolitan cities and towns. Deeper greet/antagonize interactions with NPCs (but still no real dialogue trees), more random events and mini missions, more building interiors, etc.

Take GTA V, apply everything Rockstar learned and created for RDR2, and scale it up in size, depth, and complexity.

Din din din din, we have a winner.

People should measure their expectations.

The happiest people are gonna be the realistic type of folks.

 

[Lokaum D+]

even if they dont they ll, fans ll shill to their deaths for GTA every day of the year and the online ll took over the brainless gamers all over the world.

 

[clarky]

Hopefully they release it in 5 hour episodic chunks every Friday.

 

[Imtjnotu]

Rockstar has never let me down

 

[LiquidMetal14]

It's a lot of hype but you have to think about the way music and movies and media is today. If it was something that looked really revolutionary I think it would merit the most hype ever. And I guess by casual standards you could say it is. But in terms of what it's doing and why I personally say Squadron 42 is doing a lot more and it's something you should be really excited for is because we've played GTA and I love GTA and will buy this day one but just something like Squadron 42 is a much more ambitious and anticipated game that we haven't seen before on this level.

Unfortunately the levels of hype for the game like this just don't quite meet what was genuine hype over the PlayStation 2 games.

Trust it's GTA and it has earned its reputation and I suppose you could say absence has made the heart grow fonder but it would be automatic hype for a game like this because of people like me who have played in since the beginning and genuinely enjoy them. Not necessarily because they are doing something extraordinarily new. But one thing you know for sure is that Rockstar puts a lot of detail in there and I would be hyped for reasons like that versus it feeling like just another expansion of GTA v.

 

[Tokio Blues]

Wont live the hype, it should be a perfect game. Imagine being in an airport, highjack an airplane full of passengers, wont happen.

 

[bender]

From a detailed open world perspective, absolutely. From a narrative, mechanic, and mission design perspective, absolutely not.

 

[Investor9872]

GTA6 will turn out to be one of their greatest game eventually after all the patches, and it will still never live up to the kind of hype that it's getting right now.

 

[BigLee74]

Game will be amazing - no doubts about it. Very much looking forward to it.

 

[Sybrix]

I really hope they go in a different direction with GTA Online.

Fuck flying bikes, submarines, military hardware raging through the city, the online should focus on building a criminal network that's realistic.